Stealth Meta

A couple weeks into brainstorming and I’m excited enough about the project to start running tests. The core experience gaining mechanic is voyeurism. Essentially gain powers by looking at the hot girl in class without getting caught. Higher risk, higher reward for getting in close, but still evading suspicion.

The tricky part is that this is a stealth system in plain sight. Traditionally in games you have any guard or NPC catching you in line of sight triggering an alarm within some time, but this mechanic is more subtle and thus more complex to get to feel right.

Line of sight is important and the angle difference from where the target girl is looking to looking at you is one of the most important factors. But it’s a risk factor, not a cause by itself of being ‘Caught’. Being caught includes the girl facing your direction somewhat and observing you looking south of the face for a segment of time based on your distance from her and the accuracy (obviousness) of your gaze.

Adding on there’s the social implications/influence at play. Does the girl know you well? If not she’ll be more suspicious. Did you engage her in a conversation first? If not, why are you staring at her!! It’s a fun mechanic to play around with which is this sort of awkward meta stealth.

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Now this is a different look– er… approach. um… viewpoint– dang! Original idea! And so obviously un-PC. Sounds difficult to work out the mechanics. And what’s the payoff? In traditional gaming, the powers gained can be put to use laying waste to enemies and staying alive longer. In this? Where does it end up?

I’m wondering, too, if the game starts off with some kind of easy level gawking, like maybe a girl in a burqa— the eye slit allows her limited detection powers? Beginner level. Then progresses to the very hottest of the hot in school— maybe someone who is always surrounded by her gaggle of girlfriends who pose additional risks of detection. Gotta be a pro to scope out that one. Does it progress to the ultimate challenge, getting a date? Or just increasing levels of peeping?